Californian gaming authorities have advised their colleagues in Las Vegas about a number of card counting programs currently available from the Apple App Store.
The applications, some of which are free, are advertised as training aids, but the gaming police say that they could be used to tip the odds in the favour of punters if undetected.
Card counting drastically increases the odds of predicting the outcome of any given hand of blackjack by accurately guessing the likelihood of a high value card being dealt from a multiple deck shoe. The technique, which involves assigning simple values to 'good' and 'bad' cards, was originally developed by an MIT maths professor who made a small fortune teaching some of his brighter students how to skew the odds.
The technique itself is not illegal, and gaming houses have largely eradicated the problem by using more and more decks of cards in a Blackjack shoe, but using a device to count cards is illegal and very much frowned upon by the large gentleman in a monkey suit looking over your shoulder.
A memo distributed by the Gaming Control Board to Las Vegas casinos has warned security teams to be on the lookout for people sneakily using Iphones or Ipod Touches in 'Stealth Mode' which lets the application do its thing even though the screen is blanked out as long as you know where the virtual keys are on the display.
A spokesman said that it was up to individual casinos to decide how to deal with the threat but it is likely that a blanket ban on electronic devices at gaming tables will bring an end to the underhand electronic jiggery pokery.
Mobile phones are currently banned from most championship poker games but music players are still allowed.
Story source:
theinquirer.net.
